The CV of the leading candidate in Colombia’s presidential elections, Ivan Duque, became even shorter after he was called out for inflating his academic achievements.
The 41-year-old top man of powerful ex-president Alvaro Uribe already had a question mark hanging over his head over his lack of work experience.
Duque appears to never have applied for a job, but was awarded his positions by political allies of his father, a powerful Liberal Party politician.
The Harvard hoax
On his CV, the presidential candidate said he had done “several specializations, including one in negotiation, at Harvard University” with working at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC.
The university said Duque “applied to and was accepted to our Public Financial Management in a Changing World program. However, he did not complete it as he withdrew.”
What Duque explained as specializations were two five-day courses at the prestigious university, according to Alejandro Hoyos, a university student who verified the candidate’s claims.
The fake policy contributions
The presidential candidate also claimed he had contributed to the formulation of poverty reduction programs for Colombia’s 2010 development plan. This was denied by the coordinator of this project.
“I don’t remember ever talking to Ivan Duque or having received any input from him,” said Roberto Angulo on Twitter.
Also Duque’s self-proclaimed contributions to a development program for youth, Jovenes en Accion II, were non-existent, said Angulo.
All these claims were subsequently removed from Duque’s website.
What’s left of Duque’s CV?
What is left of Duque’s CV appears to be the career dominated by politically-motivated appointments to the son of a well-connected Liberal Party power broker.
Duque began his career as an assistant to President Juan Manuel Santos when the latter was the finance minister of former President Andres Pastrana (1998-2002).
Santos then sent the son of the then-registrar to Washington to assist Colombia’s representative at the IADB.
The Colombian president of the investment bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, appointed Duque chief of the bank’s culture and creativity department, the only executive position ever held by the presidential candidate.
In 2011, Uribe asked Duque to become his assistant at a UN panel that was investigating Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip.
Duque became senator of the opposition Democratic Center party in 2014 without receiving any votes. He remained in virtual obscurity until Uribe appointed him his party’s presidential candidate.